The price of XTZ, the native token of the Tezos crypto project, rose 30 percent over the weekend in anticipation of the network's official launch Monday.
At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.55, having clocked a 5.5-week high of $1.75 at 13:10 UTC on Saturday.
At that point, XTZ was up 35 percent from Friday's low of $1.29, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The cryptocurrency picked up a strong bid on Friday after the developers tweeted that Tezos' mainnet arrives on Sept. 17.
Notably, trading volumes also jumped 169 percent on Friday to a nine-week high of $5.13 million, marking a surge in investor interest in the cryptocurrency.
Having raised $232 million via an ICO in July 2017 - one of the largest token sales ever - things were looking bright for Tezos.
Looking forward, if the launch goes well and the trading volumes remain healthy, then XTZ could soon revisit Friday's high of $1.75.
Further gains could be on the cards if the broader crypto market continues making gains.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Tezos Token Makes Gains in Approach to Official Launch
Published on Sep 17, 2018
by Coindesk | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.